SALT LAKE CITY — Advocates are calling for immediate action to prevent children from dying in hot cars as summer approaches, following a recent heatwave with more expected on the way.
Despite more than 25 years of public education, the organization Kids and Car Safety reports that children are still dying in hot cars at alarming rates. Since 1990, more than 1,100 children have died in hot cars, and 7,500 have survived with injuries — many of them life-altering.
Amber Rollins, executive director of Kids and Car Safety, said the danger is ongoing. "We know that there are babies out there with families who are loved and they're healthy and they're happy, and unfortunately, they won't be with us by the end of the summer."
Rollins said the threat exists even on mild days. "We have documented many children who have died inside vehicles from heatstroke on days when it was in the 60s outside."
She explained why children are especially vulnerable. "Their little bodies, their temperature doesn't regulate the way that ours does. So a child's temperature rises 3 to 5 times faster than an adult. And then you combine that with the fact that a vehicle is essentially a greenhouse. So it allows all that heat and solar energy to come in through the windows, and then it just bounces around in the car, heating it up very quickly, and there's nowhere for it to escape," she said.
Rollins said even the greatest parents can be sleep-deprived, make a misstep, and forget their child in the car.
One free and easy way to avoid leaving a child in the car: keep a stuffed animal in the child's car seat and move it to the front seat as a visual reminder that the child is traveling with you.
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